The Denver Broncos may have gotten away with one on their fourth-quarter defensive play that sealed a win in Super Bowl 50.

Von Miller’s second strip sack of the game of the Carolina Panthers’ Cam Newton was recovered by Broncos safety T.J. Ward at the 4-yard line to set up Denver’s game-clinching score that made it 24-10.

But another look at Miller on that play, as pointed out by MMQB’s Peter King, shows the Broncos’ stud pass rusher could’ve been flagged on the play. After Miller forced the ball from Newton’s hand, teammate DeMarcus Ware had the first chance to jump on it but it squirted away (this is the hotly debated part of the play in which Newton backed off a chance to dive on the ball).

But Newton was still close to the ball and had a shot to grab it when Miller reached his left arm in and knocked the ball back toward the Broncos’ end zone. As King points out, that’s illegal and a penalty could have been called but it’s not reviewable because it’s a judgement call.

Miller spoke to King over the phone about the play and offered this, “I couldn’t fall on it, so I was just trying to, I don’t know, get it to one of our guys.”

That meshes fairly well with Ward’s description about the play that he delivered after the game.

“Von was about to recover it and he couldn’t recover it so he kicked it out to the end zone. I just scooped it,” Ward said.

It wasn’t actually a kick, but he did find a way to get the ball to Ward and the Broncos added to the 16-10 lead they held at the time and nobody will be coming to take their Lombardi Trophy away.